Monthly Archives: December 2014

“Pigs!” In the 1960s, it was a disparaging and all-too-familiar moniker; police officers around the country heard it directed at them on a daily basis.

“Pigs!” It continued through much of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s but as long hair shortened, bell-bottoms narrowed and body piercings and tattoos replaced love-beads and Fu Manchus, the term and perspective began to fade.

“Pigs!” by the new millennium, was only a feint echo; all but disappearing in the mainstream.

I believe there are many reasons for this. Law enforcement embraced a community oriented policing philosophy; partnering with the community and listening to citizens and their concerns. Cops began walking beats again. They got on bikes and ATVs, and started Citizen Police Academies. Police organizations and unions became involved in charitable drives: the Special Olympics, Shopping with Cops and Running with Torches.

We listened to the community and modified our training, adding subjects such as cultural diversity, mental health issues, understanding the complexities of domestic violence, sexual assault prevention and advocating for victim’s rights. In addition, use of force training evolved and became more comprehensive, resulting in officers using less force when dealing with unruly subjects.

In short, cops were doing better jobs and putting in a collective effort to reconnect with the citizens they were paid to protect.

Fast-forward: August 2014, “Pigs” is back in vogue once again. At least it is if you follow certain members of the national media who are creating hysteria in spite of the true facts!

Some reporters and pundits are using extraordinarily negative terminology and applying malevolent motivations to the over 700,000 individuals in the law enforcement profession. Anchors, moderators, expert guests, and opinion journalists are describing police officers as militarized brutes, racists, storm-troopers, executioners, power hungry, out of control thugs and even murderers. Phrases such as “epidemic of violence from the police towards citizens” are being bandied about with unchallenged impunity despite reality, truths and statistics.

A woman named Michelle Bernard on a national broadcast insinuated that what happened in Ferguson, Mo. is an example of a “war on black boys” by the police and opined that the result could be “genocide.”

Genocide!? Where the hell are any kind of stats, anywhere, to suggest anything remotely like that is happening between cops and young black men? And her comment was virtually unopposed by anyone else on the panel.

No one knows what really happened in Ferguson except a limited few. Relative information is not being released (which is contributing to some of the paranoia) and nature abhors a vacuum so there is no shortage of pundits willing to simply jump in and make stuff up.

But, Pigs?

Here are some stats gleaned from such organizations as the National Institute of Justice:

2011: Police officers had direct contact with citizens more than 40 million times. 1,146 of those people were shot (not killed) by police. That means out of all the people police encountered approximately 0.00002865% were shot. If you consider that there are over 320 million people in the country that would mean 0.00000358125% of them were shot by cops.

2012: There were approximately 12 million arrests, which equals about 34,000 per day: slightly over 400 were killed by police. And almost all of them were killed because they were an immediate deadly threat to an officer or the public. Which means that at the times of those shootings, cops were saving lives.

The Truth: Cops are not “gunning down” people in the US. Are there mistakes, overzealousness, an overreaction to stress on occasion; yes, and we have to accept that and do something about it when those occasions happen. If a crime is committed by a police officer, criminal charges need be filed; No doubt.

But a war on the citizenry? Genocide being perpetrated by the police? Storm-troopers taking over cities?

Pigs?

I’ve been in law enforcement for more than 30 years. I’ve seen more than I care to share with people who don’t need to know such evil exists. I’m no different than every other cop out there, and let me guarantee you this; we feel. We are not heartless, nonhuman, Neanderthals looking to inflict pain. In fact, it’s the damn exact opposite. We beg, beg people not to resist, not to fight! And the stats are there to prove it; but why bother with reality?

Pigs?

We are attacked tens of thousands of times a year. We are wounded, paralyzed, put in comas that last decades, and are killed. We’ve been shot with every type of gun including our own; by people who were originally “unarmed.”

Our attackers are young, old, male, female, small, large, weak and strong. Some have extensive criminal records, some have never been in trouble in their lives. We’ve been stabbed with swords, commando knives, kitchen utensils and box cutters.

We also jump into rivers, run into burning buildings, reach into cars aflame, hold victims who need it and cry with people hurting and feeling the deepest of loss.

When somebody is shooting up a mall, university, or movie theatre, we are the ones running toward the gunfire, not knowing how many assailants there may be, what type of firepower they are wielding, where they are and if there will be any opportunity for cover or chance to survive!

We lay on the street holding dying children, women, men, pets and yes, other police officers. We knock on doors in the middle of the night and tell sleepy unsuspecting parents that the child they saw just a few hours ago is in the morgue. We hear and feel their subsequent pain and do our best to comfort them in those impossible situations. And we often ask God: Why?

We find lifeless children in ponds, pools and lagoons. We listen to seven-year-olds describe being raped by uncles. We try and calm women who are beaten so badly that they can’t enunciate words or open a swollen eye. And we try and control our rage as we listen to them tell us not to make an arrest because it was all their fault, all while the degenerate husband laughs and calls her a bitch in our presence.

We stand next to officers who get shot. We hold their hands and hug them as they die. We watch the flags get folded and handed to children who don’t understand why someone would purposely kill their mommy.

We go home and try our best to have normal lives. We hug our kids, help with chores, coach little league and do whatever it takes to hide the ugly side of humanity from our families.

We see the murders, the suicides, the mentally unstable. We help the homeless, give the unfortunate rides, hand a few bucks to the hungry, buy shoes for the shoeless, and get families into hotel rooms in order to protect them from the cold and the monsters looking for prey.

Pigs?

Here’s my challenge for you who dare to yell “Pig” and cast baseless assertions on an entire profession while having no idea what we do or what you are talking about.

You try it. Do what we do. See what we see. Hear what we hear. Feel what we feel. You try and handle the fear that we experience. Make the decisions that we have to make in the blink of an eye. Decisions that will be second-guessed and sometimes haunt us for years.

Live in our shoes for a year, then see if you think we are all still pigs.

Our Law Enforcement Officers are being murdered as well as laying down their lives on duty every 58 hours. They are being shot while sitting at traffic lights. Executed in coffee shops and on their lunch breaks. Lured into ambushes and blown away while removing debris from the roadway, or while responding to an alarm call which was a set up. They are being killed in their own driveways, while off duty. They are being shot inside their own preceincts.

If celebrities or professional athletes were being targeted, shot and murdered to the tune of one dead every 58 hours there would be an instant demand for answers and protection. There would be a national cry to stop the violence before it impacted reality tv or sports center.

Regardless of proven statistics which tell us otherwise, our officers continue to get blamed as a whole for the actions of less than one percent*. Regardless of common sense in a world where we have all encountered a bad mechanic, doctor, plumber, we blame ALL cops for the few. Regardless of countless corrupt priests, teachers, crooked judges and lawyers, we do not condemn their entire profession, it’s asinine to even consider. But with law enforcement, it is instant condemnation of all.

What exactly does an officer have to do for you to say his/her life has worth? What will it take for you to see the family waiting at home, praying theirs isn’t the next officer down? What will it take for the citizens of this country to say without them, who will make these sacrifices? Will you? Are you ready to be the target? Are you ready to line up your family and friends and know one of you will not come home every other day?

Our law enforcement officers are humans. When will it be enough to say something’s got to give? Even for those who hate the police….you’ll be the first to dial 911 when you need them and you will expect them to run lights blazing to your rescue, after all, you pay their salary.

What happens when they say, sorry, it’s too dangerous, you’re on your own. You hate us anyway, so do as you see fit. YOU stand in front of the bullet and protect your own family. You pry your mangled wife out of the wreckage you caused while drunk and give her CPR in front of your children. You stand in the pouring rain in the dead of night on an expressway and protect your own car from being hit by a semi until the tow truck gets there. You unlock your own car you left your keys in. You change your own tire when 8 months pregnant in 102 degree heat. You stand in front of your own abusive husband and his weapon and his fist and tell him to leave your home without harming you.

You get in your own car and race to stop someone who stole from you or hit your car a few miles back. You enter your neighborhood store and approach a masked man with a shotgun and reason with him not to kill you or those in the store. You go knock on the neighbor’s door who has a warrant, a house full of weapons and a sign on the door that says “don’t tread on me”.

You watch for drunks out of control on the highway in an ice storm. You pray they don’t kill you. You respond to suicide calls and cut teenagers from makeshift nooses in their garages or scrape their brain matter out of the soles of your boots. You tell their parents what happened while they were out socializing, again.

You walk into a house with no power in 105 degree heat containing the bodies of an entire family, including babies, now maggot infested and unidentifiable by anything other than the stench of rotten death. You walk up to cars who have nearly run you off the road only to be met with a gun in your face and no time to react.

You try and coax a brutally beaten and savagely raped teenager the same age as your own daughter out of the closet where she was left to die as she holds a knife to her own throat. You convince her tomorrow will be better.

You hate the police? You have no use for them? You think they’re worthless? Do it yourself. Worry about it all on your own. You surely can do better. You surely are wiser than those lazy, corrupt, doughnut eating fools you don’t give the time of day to when you hear they were gunned down while you went on about your business. Please, give them a rest and do it yourself.

You might want to hug your family and have your affairs in order before you head out, there’s a very real chance you’ll never make it home, of course that’s no big deal….you signed up for that, and my tax dollars allow me to ignore your worth. After all, you’re just a cop.

Oh, and you sure as hell better do it all perfectly, every single time. After all, you’re not human anymore. You’re just a cop. No one cares if you get it right…but you sure as hell better never get it wrong…because a good cop who did get it right will get his head blown off in an entirely different state if you screw up. That goes for you too, by the way. Better pray all 740,000 do right by that badge today, if not… It’s all on you, because all cops are bad cops, right?

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — They do what most would never dare — rush into burning buildings saving lives and homes. But many firefighters are now dying from something that stays with them long after the flames are out.

Chief Chapman was diagnosed with cancer five years ago. Sharp stomach pains sent him to the doctor. A biopsy revealed the bitter truth. He had colon cancer, one of the leading killers of men.

“I was really shocked because there has really been no significant history in my family of any kind of cancer,” he said.

Fortunately the cancer was caught early. But the now 51-year-old man who has been fighting fires since he was a teen still wonders why he ended up with cancer.

“It come from out of nowhere and it really makes you wonder if it’s not because of my profession,” Chapman said.

Several recent medical studies, including one from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, show firefighters are at an increased risk for cancer, especially respiratory, urinary and digestive.

Some show testicular cancer rates are double the rate seen in the rest of the population.

Researcher now believe not only exposure at the scene, but all of the soot and caked on carcinogens on their gear worn over and over again are quietly killing firefighters.

The Goose Creek Fire Department knows all too well.

“Losing Steve has changed our department in a lot of ways,” said Chief Chapman.

Firefighter Steve Skipton was just 41 years old when cancer ravaged his kidneys, lungs and pelvis. It robbed four children of their father, and a wife of her love.

It was a loss felt through other departments as well.

“I used to think I was invincible,” said North Charleston Fire Captain Samuel Gadson. “Hey you do this kind of job being a fireman, you run into burning buildings. Look now you got something that can actually kill you.”

Captain Gadson was diagnosed with thyroid cancer earlier this year. A new, more expensive physical that included ultrasound caught it early.

“If [North Charleston Fire Chief Greg Bulanow] hadn’t come in and done this, then my detection would have gone unnoticed unless I personally asked for an ultrasound to be done,” said Captain Gadson.

It opened the department’s eyes.

“We didn’t know what to expect the first time we did such an in depth physical like that,” said Chief Bulanow.

What they found was 25 of 230 firefighters tested — nearly one-fifth — had nodules on their thyroids. Not all were cancer, but the chief’s was.

“Certainly I want to be here to take care of my family and also do my job, but I consider myself very fortunate to have found it early,” said Chief Bulanow.

Both the Chief and Captain Gadson have been fighting fires for more than 20 years. They believe those fires are even more deadly now. They’re fueled not just by wood, but by plastics.

“It used to be a badge of honor to always have that dirty gear, that tarred up helmet and that dirty mask,” said Captain Gadson. “That’s the way it was. Now I know better.”

It’s a strange sight in the department, but a huge, $7,000 washing machine now sits in the fire house off Dorchester Road. Firefighters are not only encouraged to shower, but their gear is cleaned. The chief is even working on getting two sets of gear for every firefighter.

“This is a significant investment in the health and welfare of our people,” said Chief Bulanow.

It’s an investment the chief and others hope will pay off for generations to come.

“If we can take that and decrease the numbers every year by us following the right safety measures that we have to follow then I’ll take that every day, all day,” said Captain Gadson.